John James "Jim" Exon (August 9, 1921 – June 10, 2005) was an American
Democratic politician. He served as the
33rd Governor of Nebraska from 1971 to 1979, and as a
U.S. Senator from
Nebraska from 1979 to 1997. Exon was a Nebraska Democrat who never lost an election, and the only Democrat to hold Nebraska's Class 2 U.S. Senate seat. He was elected governor in 1970, re-elected in 1974, elected to the Senate in 1978, and re-elected to that seat in 1984 and 1990. He is the only Nebraskan besides
George W. Norris, the architect of Nebraska's unicameral legislature, to win five consecutive statewide elections.

Early career

After the war, he worked as the branch manager of a financial services institution. He founded Exon Office Supplies in Lincoln in 1953 and served as its president until 1971. In 1972, when
Esso changed its name to
Exxon, it asked Gov. Exon for his permission. He received no financial remuneration from the company.

Governor of Nebraska 1971–1979

Exon's first bid for public office was his successful campaign for
Governor of Nebraska, defeating incumbent Republican
Norbert Tiemann. The term of the Governor had been extended to four years beginning with Tiemann's win in 1966. Exon was re-elected in a landslide in 1974 and became the first Nebraska Governor to serve eight years in that position.

His repeated vetoes of the legislature's spending programs earned Exon the reputation as a fiscal conservative. He vetoed 141 bills in his final seven years as Governor or an average of 20 a year. Due to his ability to control expenditures and his reluctance to raise taxes, Exon won the support of many Nebraskans who normally voted Republican.

Senator from Nebraska 1979–1997

1995, Congressional Pictorial Directory

Exon's popularity as Governor carried over to his 1978 campaign for the U.S. Senate, and he was elected with 68 percent of the vote. He had a reputation as a moderate Democrat, often working with Republicans on fiscal and military issues. While serving on the
U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, Exon was a strong defender of the
B-2 stealth bomber.

On October 19, 1983, Exon was one of four Democratic senators to vote against a bill establishing
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.[1] The legislation was signed into law by President Reagan the following month.[2]

In 1984, Exon had the closest election in his political career due to the popularity of
President Ronald Reagan, eventually winning re-election by 25,000 votes. He was re-elected again in 1990.

He helped sponsor the Exon-Florio Amendment, which prevented takeovers or mergers by foreign companies of U.S. companies, if said merger was found to be a threat to national security.

Exon helped to write and secure support for a spending reduction in the U.S. budget of $14 billion in 1994, which he stated was his proudest political achievement. His
Communications Decency Act of 1996 was Congress's first effort to try to regulate content on the Internet with the goal of preventing access or transmission of pornography on the internet. It was later overturned by a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court as an unconstitutional infringement of the First Amendment.[4]

Final Years 1997–2005

After his retirement, Exon served on a Committee established by Congress and led by
John M. Deutch on the threat of weapons of mass destruction. In the report, Exon warned of the dangers if such weapons fell into the hands of terrorists and recommended the formation of an agency with a similar role to the
Department of Homeland Security.

He was treated for cancer in the last years of his life, although he claimed in 2003 that it wasn't "highly malignant". Exon died of natural causes in
Lincoln, Nebraska on June 10, 2005. He was the first person to
lie in state for public viewing in the rotunda of the
State Capitol building.